Flowers: Not Surprised By Clinton Cover-Up Allegations

Feels 'Vindicated' By Reported Admission About Affair

LOS ANGELES (AllPolitics, Jan. 23) -- Gennifer Flowers says she feels "vindicated" after reports that President Bill Clinton admitted under oath that he had an affair with her, after denying it for years.

In an interview Friday on CNN's "Larry King Live" -- her first live interview since Clinton's reported admission about their affair -- Flowers also said she is not surprised by allegations that Clinton had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and then urged her to deny it.

"He certainly encouraged me ... to participate in a conspiracy of cover-up," Flowers said. "Do I think he would do it? Yes, I do."

And Flowers said she thinks people are inclined to believe the allegations about Clinton and Lewinsky because of the way the president has handled past scandals that have hit his administration.

"I think it's a very natural instinct at this point to want to make these assumptions because he's proven himself in the past, on a few occasions, to be less than honest," she said.

Flowers' allegations of a 12-year relationship with Clinton rocked his 1992 campaign before the key New Hampshire primary. She released tape recordings she had made of conversations with Clinton, during which she says he asked her to deny their affair.

But when the scandal broke, Clinton publicly denied having an affair with Flowers during a memorable appearance on CBS's "60 Minutes" with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. He went on to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency.

Now, sources have told CNN that during his deposition taken under oath last weekend in connection with the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, Clinton admitted to a sexual relationship with Flowers, although he says it did not last 12 years.

"I am surprised that he admitted it," Flowers told King. "But I think that there was so much corroboration of our relationship -- it lasted for so many years -- that I think he would have to be very cautious about lying under oath about it."

Flowers said she thinks Clinton would have been much better off in the long run if he had simply acknowledged the affair back in 1992.

"I think he would have been elected, and I think that almost anything that would have come his way -- because he would have been perceived as an honest man -- would not have affected him as severely as things have," she said.

Flowers said she thinks it would not be out of character for Clinton to risk a affair with a 21-year-old intern in the White House during an election year.

"He has the propensity to let that dominate his way of thinking at times," she said. "He's a chance taker, and he will take chances."

She told King that Clinton once asked her to have sex in a bathroom at the Arkansas' governor's mansion while his wife and 50 guests were outside on the lawn. She refused, fearful that they would be discovered.

Flowers said she would be "saddened" if the allegations of the Lewinsky affair turned out to be true because she once loved him.

But "I would want to see him leave office if in fact he did encourage (Lewinsky) to lie in a deposition," she said. "That's obviously illegal, and we don't need someone in power who would participate in that activity."

Flowers says that since news of Clinton's reported admission broke, she has received calls of apology from some people, including media figures, who were critical of her and skeptical of her allegations.

Flowers also said she still holds some anger toward Clinton for the way she was treated.

"I've had my dukes up for five years because he denied our relationship and then he let loose his spin doctors to try to destroy me," she said. "I'm mad about that. My mother is mad about that."